Transfer of public health welcomed

“Welcome back public health, we have missed you – you should never have been sent away.”

That was the delighted response of Avril Wilson, director of housing and community care at Reading Borough Council, following a presentation on how the public health service is to be transferred from the NHS to local authorities in 2013.

Ms Wilson said: “This will enable us to integrate public health and social care in ways we have never been able to before.”

But she warned that 2013 was a very short time to make the transfer.

The presentation was given to the community care, housing and health scrutiny panel on Tuesday by director of public health at NHS Berkshire West Dr Janet Maxwell.

She said the new body overseeing public health would be called Public Health England and would have a budget of £4 billion.

But she added that it was difficult to tell what form the local teams would take until the local budget was announced.

Dr Maxwell said Berkshire would face some “unique” problems because of its six unitary authorities, making the transfer of the service from two Berkshire primary care trusts to six councils more complicated than in areas with a county council.

She said directors of public health would be strategic leaders for public health and health inequalities in local communities and their budgets would be ring-fenced.

The job would involve advising councillors and officers on health matters, promoting integrated working, advocating public health and producing an independent annual report on the health of the local population.

It is envisaged the new approach to public health will be more responsive, resourced, rigorous and resilient – owned by communities and shaping their needs.

The new directors will be appointed by Public Health England but councils will have the power to sack them for serious failings. Councillor Deborah Watson said the proposed changes in the Health and Social Services Bill to be published in January – in which the public health changes will be outlined – would lead to an “inevitable two-tier health system and a postcode lottery for treatment”.

She said the council would have to play a major role in scrutinising the impact of the changes in the Reading area.